San Antonio, Texas, ‘sees potential’ in Mexico due to the rise of nearshoring.
‘We are partners, neighbors and friends. At the trade level, Texas is Mexico’s number one partner and vice versa,’ said Rolando Pablos, candidate for mayor of San Antonio in an interview with El Financiero.
Amid the nearshoring boom and the growing importance of the Mexico-Texas trade relationship, San Antonio seeks to position itself as a strategic point to strengthen bilateral ties.
Rolando Pablos, candidate for mayor of this Texan city and expert in binational trade relations, proposes turning San Antonio into a hub for Mexican investment in the United States.
“We are partners, neighbors and friends. Texas is Mexico’s number one partner at the trade level and vice versa,” said Pablos in an interview with El Financiero. The candidate, born in Obregón, Sonora, and has lived in San Antonio for more than 40 years, emphasized the need to take better advantage of the city’s strategic position.
Although San Antonio has a 70 percent Hispanic population and maintains sister city relations with Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City, the Texas city has not fully capitalized on its potential as a destination for Mexican investment.
“We do not have Mexican multinationals established with their headquarters. They have gone more to Dallas and Houston, few to Austin,” lamented Pablos.
Competition between Mexico and Texas on ‘nearshoring’ ruled out
In the current context of nearshoring, the candidate emphatically rejected the narrative of competition between Mexico and Texas. “We see Mexico as a partner, not as a competitor,” he stressed, recalling the successful model of “twin plants” or maquiladoras that has been developed since the 1960s.
The candidate highlighted that the state of Texas continues to attract significant investments from various countries. The Japanese have become the main generators of jobs, with Toyota as a prominent example. For its part, Samsung has invested close to 20 billion dollars in Austin for a chip factory. Mexican companies have also shown growing interest: Arca Continental invested 250 million dollars in Houston, while companies such as Cemex, Gruma, Vitro and recently Oxxo have strengthened their presence in the state.
As former Secretary of State of Texas, Pablos led the Border Trade Advisory Committee (BTAC), which focused on the development of border infrastructure. Under his management, representatives of the Mexican border states were successfully integrated into the planning of binational projects.
“We just got four presidential permits to expand bridges and build new ones,” he said, highlighting projects in Piedras Negras, Brownsville, Matamoros, and Laredo.
Regarding the upcoming review of the USMCA, Pablos was optimistic that there will be even deeper cooperation and collaboration, including more with Canada. However, he warned about the concern in Washington about growing Chinese investment in Mexico, noting that this issue could be central to the negotiations.
Source: El Financiero
